Jim Little Interview Summary For Those Who Cant get it

[Mexicano Rojo]

ramon diaz! that would be a fucking ace signing. one of the best managers of all time. check his record.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

As much as I think PS is an absolute legend, if he did go and we brought a first team coach in I wouldnt be devastated, as Jose Veaga has an awesome pedigree and reputation in Portugal, and has worked alongside some of the best coaches going. If he can do half as well here as he did in his post at Estoril, and the town become solvent and financially competitive, then we could be going places!

Naive or confident, I don't know, but I'm certainly not going to shit a brick about the new set up before they've had any chance to fulfill their promises.

Fair enough. But losing the best manager we have had in a long time is not a good start for the new owners. The jury is out on them already in a lot of fans eyes and if they piss us off by forcing Sturrock out they are not doing themselves any favours. I don't give a shit if this guy has a good record working with coaches. I do not want Sturrock to leave. I do not want 3 people picking a fucking football team for a game. It would be like me saying "I'm off for a piss can you two come and hold it for me?" I mean WTF do you need 3 people running team affairs? It's ridiculous.

[Crozzer]

In the stadium bit, to break the soil this year has to mean an out of town site which really narrows it down if within the Borough still.  Any of the plots by the M4 I suppose.

If the GM has a say in the team selection, then clearly he'll win any vote over Sturrock as he's higher up the food chain.

It's a right mixed bag, possibly a sign of the nature of the investment.  Some of it sounds good, other bits sound at the least worrying.

I heard a rumour, its an old rubbish dump, where they planted a few trees and owners take their dogs to take a daily shit, can't remember the name of it.

[sonic youth]

news bulletin on RS at half 6 this morning stating that little has said that "the buck stops with veiga" when it comes to footballing matters.

that is worrying.

[Dirk Diggler]

Why?

Director of football!

[Reg Smeeton]

news bulletin on RS at half 6 this morning stating that little has said that "the buck stops with veiga" when it comes to footballing matters.

that is worrying.

  After Sunday's dismal show....Veiga out..

[neville w]

Will Sturrock,Veiga & Little be having a face off using the Paper,Rock & Scissors method to see who gets to pick the team each week?

Spoof

Three players,  if you've got first shout, hold nil, shout 4 - Sturrock B, you're not playing !

[red macca]

It would seem they wouldn't want a proven Manager though, if they want to be involved in team decisions and player recruitment.  It would suggest they want a 1st Team Coach who will simply run training and allow involvement in team selection and possibly tactics.

It's not necessarily a bad thing provided the club is set-up properly to that way of working and the GM is experienced in football.  It's rare, almost unheard of, to run that way in this country though which means either a new coach or a foreign coach used to that system would be needed.

It does all seem a bit similar to Hearts to me.

The other stuff all sounds good so far, I'm just holding back a bit as it seems the strategy keeps changing.

veiga has appointed experienced managers at every other club so why wont he here.They funded sturrocks signings so far this season it seems they are backing him in my eyes.If sturrock goes i think it will be his own choice to do so.

[RobertT]

He may well end-up leaving of his own choice, because his job role will have changed.  Probably able to claim constructive dismissal so get a pay off to avoid that as is the norm in the football world.

I'm not saying the concept is necessarily bad.  If they have better people lined up, it's their money I suppose.

basically I'm confused about the whole situation and the impression I get from the snippets we have in the media, it seems those running the place now are not exactly always singing off the same hymh sheet.  Most of the stuff sounds good, some of it sounds worrying and I can't quiite place whether it will end-up in cheers or tears right now.  Will we be some ultra well run club using the best European style management, cut costs, increase revenue, get a sparkly new ground etc.  Or, will we be some weird shop window club with agents hanging off us like the top deck of the titanic, dodgy deals making people money but not the club, a kassak style ground and a Hearts style set-up where the Chairman picks the team if he fancies playing boss.  I just don't know and it might be that they don't either, especially if so many different people have a vested interest in the private equity fund.

[Ardiles]

Jim Little: "Bringing Jose to Swindon is an absolutely unbelievable coup, he is like the Jose Mourinho of football management."

That's a bit daft.  Isn't that a bit like saying he is like the Alan Titchmarsh of horticulture or the Gordon Ramsey of fine cuisine?

Jim's not a football man, is he.

[pauld]

Jim Little: "Bringing Jose to Swindon is an absolutely unbelievable coup, he is like the Jose Mourinho of football management."

That's a bit daft.  Isn't that a bit like saying he is like the Alan Titchmarsh of horticulture or the Gordon Ramsey of fine cuisine?

Jim's not a football man, is he.

  Trade window

[Lumps]

I've been holding off posting about the way things are going off the field until things got a bit clearer, but as it's looking like it isn't going to ...here goes!

Firstly, I think we're probably all agreed that this outcome in terms of the club's ownership is not our ideal. A club owned by a friendly, football-mad multi-millionaire in partnership with the fans Trust would have been great, but it's no longer on the table, so we need to put it out of our minds.

I can't help but think that the disappointment of that failure is colouring peoples views of the current situation.

Like everyone else is saying I'm reserving judgement on this new lot, but everything that has been announced is not bad, and some peoples attempts to out a negative spin on absolutely every element of Little's interview is sounding a bit childish.

Over the last few days we've found out:

Diamond Mike is no longer General Manager, because Viegas is. . So we've replaced a dodgy foreign geezer with another BUT crucially the one on his way out 's only involvement in sport has been to nurse along a half arsed promotions company from one CVA to another for a few years, whilst his replacement was general manager at Benfica during a title winning spell, and had previously taken a Portugese minnow through two promotions into the top flight.

I'm not sure, but that sounds like a good thing to me. OK these people might be self serving bastards, but if what works for them financially is a successful football club, then they seem to be capable of bringing that about, and that would make a nice change.

Secondly, people have been on here bitching about the lack of progress in the stadium redevelopment plans by the old board for years now. The new lot are around for a couple of weeks and they're talking about cracking on with it asap, and some of you can find things about that to moan about aswell. They've said it will be in Swindon, they've said it will have the off field income streams to club needs. They can't announce the potential sites until they've looked into it further. What the hell more do you want? For people to leap from there to assuming it's an out of town greenfield is just total speculation. There was enough going on as far as the New Swindon Company regeneration stuff was concerned the last time I looked for there to be new bown field sites coming up fairly centrally over the next few years. Besides if it was in the front garden area that's predominately SBC owned and the commercial sensitivity issues they hinted at wouldn't really apply.

Again, that one for me is (conditionally) good news.

Thirdly, the Sturrock is off thing. Didn't he make a statement yesterday to say he was at the club for the long term? Wasn't that after Viegas appointment? Now either PS found out about the proposed working arrangements with Viega, and RB at the same time we did by listening to Little's interview, or he already knew the score when he made that statement.

Either way can we all stop being so bloody parochial. The General Manager, D of F, First Team coach arrangement is how football clubs are run just about everywhere else in the bloody world apart from in Britain, and it's been known to work quite well.

It may not be what PS is used to and he might not be able to adapt to it. But then again he might. And he might leave, actually fuck that he will leave, because, THEY ALL LEAVE FFS! Have you not noticed? That's what happens at all clubs other than Man U and Crewe. Managers do shit and they're sacked, or do well and move on to better things. Two seasons, three tops, that's all you get.

Maybe, just maybe having some stability on the footballing side through people with a stake in the club wouldn't be such a terrible thing. Shit, maybe there being other opinions about who should play in the side wouldn't be a bad thing. Jesus, half a dozen of you were on here on Sunday saying that PS couldn't pick a team to save his life! BB in particular was about to volunteer to go round and help Sturrock pack his bags.

I'm not saying get the flags out or anything but can we just try to have a little balance.

Oh and despite his short lived connection with the Pox (God knows how he ended up there?), Mex is bang on! Diaz is a highly bloody successful manager with 7 (8?) Argentine titles to his name with River Plate (I think).

[WorcesterRed]

I've been holding off posting about the way things are going off the field until things got a bit clearer, but as it's looking like it isn't going to ...here goes!

Firstly, I think we're probably all agreed that this outcome in terms of the club's ownership is not our ideal. A club owned by a friendly, football-mad multi-millionaire in partnership with the fans Trust would have been great, but it's no longer on the table, so we need to put it out of our minds.

I can't help but think that the disappointment of that failure is colouring peoples views of the current situation.

Like everyone else is saying I'm reserving judgement on this new lot, but everything that has been announced is not bad, and some peoples attempts to out a negative spin on absolutely every element of Little's interview is sounding a bit childish.

Over the last few days we've found out:

Diamond Mike is no longer General Manager, because Viegas is. . So we've replaced a dodgy foreign geezer with another BUT crucially the one on his way out 's only involvement in sport has been to nurse along a half arsed promotions company from one CVA to another for a few years, whilst his replacement was general manager at Benfica during a title winning spell, and had previously taken a Portugese minnow through two promotions into the top flight.

I'm not sure, but that sounds like a good thing to me. OK these people might be self serving bastards, but if what works for them financially is a successful football club, then they seem to be capable of bringing that about, and that would make a nice change.

Secondly, people have been on here bitching about the lack of progress in the stadium redevelopment plans by the old board for years now. The new lot are around for a couple of weeks and they're talking about cracking on with it asap, and some of you can find things about that to moan about aswell. They've said it will be in Swindon, they've said it will have the off field income streams to club needs. They can't announce the potential sites until they've looked into it further. What the hell more do you want? For people to leap from there to assuming it's an out of town greenfield is just total speculation. There was enough going on as far as the New Swindon Company regeneration stuff was concerned the last time I looked for there to be new bown field sites coming up fairly centrally over the next few years. Besides if it was in the front garden area that's predominately SBC owned and the commercial sensitivity issues they hinted at wouldn't really apply.

Again, that one for me is (conditionally) good news.

Thirdly, the Sturrock is off thing. Didn't he make a statement yesterday to say he was at the club for the long term? Wasn't that after Viegas appointment? Now either PS found out about the proposed working arrangements with Viega, and RB at the same time we did by listening to Little's interview, or he already knew the score when he made that statement.

Either way can we all stop being so bloody parochial. The General Manager, D of F, First Team coach arrangement is how football clubs are run just about everywhere else in the bloody world apart from in Britain, and it's been known to work quite well.

It may not be what PS is used to and he might not be able to adapt to it. But then again he might. And he might leave, actually fuck that he will leave, because, THEY ALL LEAVE FFS! Have you not noticed? That's what happens at all clubs other than Man U and Crewe. Managers do shit and they're sacked, or do well and move on to better things. Two seasons, three tops, that's all you get.

Maybe, just maybe having some stability on the footballing side through people with a stake in the club wouldn't be such a terrible thing. Shit, maybe there being other opinions about who should play in the side wouldn't be a bad thing. Jesus, half a dozen of you were on here on Sunday saying that PS couldn't pick a team to save his life! BB in particular was about to volunteer to go round and help Sturrock pack his bags.

I'm not saying get the flags out or anything but can we just try to have a little balance.

Oh and despite his short lived connection with the Pox (God knows how he ended up there?), Mex is bang on! Diaz is a highly bloody successful manager with 7 (8?) Argentine titles to his name with River Plate (I think).

That's a really good post and I agree with most of it. However, pointing out innacuracies and questionning what the future brings doesn't necessarily mean people are painting a negative spin.

To answer your points for instance, it's great that Diamond Mike is no longer General Manager but (and I stand to be corrected here), he is still a Director?

Secondly, regarding ground development, my point is that three weeks ago, ground redevelopment or a ground move was not something that was on their radar - and yet now it's of such importance that it's been released to the media that negotiations appear to have taken place and we might get an announcement within six months? I do of course appreciate that things change though.

So I don't think that I am painting a negative spin but I like things to be black and white, not shades of grey - and questionning what comes out of SN1 surely helps to clear the muddy waters?

I just think that if people wants to ask questions, they should be able to without those that don't continually barracking them - likewise if people don't want to ask questions and just want to watch the football, that's also fair enough and they shouldn't be barracked either.

What seems to be happening is that one side might make a remark that the other thinks is a little to close to the mark and then the mud slinging begins.

[Samdy Gray]

This my take on the new stadium thing, which kind of puts a different spin on it.

A few weeks ago when Little met with the Trust he basically said a new stadium wasn't important and that they'd just tart the CG up a bit. This was before the takeover was complete.

Now that all the I's have been dotted and T's crossed, Little's changed his tune and says they've been in talks with the council etc. over possible sites. He actually said to the Sky Sports interviewer (or was it the BBC) that there were things he couldn't say before but could now, then launched into his spiel about the new stadium.

Now to my analytical mind, this suggests Little didn't want the previous incumbents to know about his new stadium idea before the deal was done. Possibly to not inflate the price of the club? Possibly because he knows what a greasy character Diamandis is.

Seems to me like Little has got a lot of sense and wits about him. Yeah, ok he'll more than likely make some money out of this new stadium but as long as we keep performing on the pitch I don't really care.

[caveman]

i wouldnt care if a new stadium was financing gary glitters conquest of vietnamese 10 year olds, as long as the team play well and the club is secure all is good in my eyes